Setting a UITextField into editing mode programmatically

Question

I have a UITextField that I want to set into editing mode (keyboard on screen and cursor in text field box) programatically. I know that the user will be in editing mode when this view appears onscreen, so I want to save the user from having to tap the text field.

The "editing" property of a UITextField is read only - so that doesn't work. Is there a way to set the UITextField into editing mode, with a keyboard onscreen, programmatically?

score 78 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

78

Call becomeFirstResponder on the UITextField.

Related question: How do I show the keyboard by default in UITextView?

edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

Community

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answered Nov 09 '10 at 05:13

Tyler

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I found this to be unreliable unless I made sure to run it in the main thread: dispatch_async( dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{[textView becomeFirstResponder];}); – Ian Ollmann Feb 13 '22 at 18:09

score 28 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 25 '14 at 13:10

28

You have to call [textField becomeFirstResponder];

edited Apr 25 '14 at 13:10

Jakub

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answered Nov 09 '10 at 05:14

Thomas Huber

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You probably posted this seconds too late, and you got no upvotes, so I decided to give you the upvote you deserve. :) – GangstaGraham Jun 11 '13 at 23:15
I gave you the upvote because using brackets and semicolon. – Display Name Sep 13 '16 at 12:13

score 12 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

12

Indeed call [textField becomeFirstResponder] in Obj-C or textField.becomeFirstResponder() in Swift.

However, make sure you call this in the viewDidAppear and not in the viewDidLoad to prevent strange behaviour (see: When set UITextField as FirstResponder programmatically, cause some weird actions on text editing).

edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

Community

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answered Oct 21 '14 at 15:12

Tom

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Setting a UITextField into editing mode programmatically

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